Running a vehicle for heat

[Milan]

Sorry if this is ridiculous...
With the proper exhaust ventilation wouldn't a car make a great garage heater? Since the internal combustion engine is so inefficient at converting energy into motion and a huge percentage is lost to heat, wouldn't it make sense that they would make great garage heaters? Just sayin.....
Milan

 

[aaronld]

Its not ridiculous, but it would be hard to make sure the exhaust is not leaking into the space you are heating. I could not trust any setup.

 

[ddawg16]

Still a wasteful way to heat.

About 60% of the energy is going out the exhaust.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml

 

[rsanter]

No
A lot of heat goes out the exhaust which you can't use and gas is more expensive than other energy sources

Bob

 

[GTA Matt]

Give it a shot. Let us know how it works when (if) you wake up

 

[ADSR]

I know a guy who had his diesel genset outside, and the rad for it on the inside of his house with a couple of pusher fans to blow the heat around. He even made a nice trimmed box for the radiator. Powered the house and heated it too.

 

[Fifty]

Exhaust would run through a heat exchanger.

Sound better now?

I'm not advocating, but I'll be open to it.

Not as easy as you think. You can't just go to Home Depot and buy one of those.

Powered the house and heated it too.

Only cost him twice as much as it would have to buy electricity and burn the oil in an oil furnace.

I guess we don't even need to mention the hours and hours and hours of extra wear you'd put on what I can only assume is a vehicle that cost many thousands of dollars?

 

[Fifty]

I don't know...an intercooler has to pass all the air that goes in to an engine...I bet it can pass all the air coming out just as well.

Pretty easy to find an intercooler for scrap price I would think.
I'll be $300 and a fruitful trip to a JY would do it all, even the fans,

That might work a couple days, until it clogs with **** from the exhaust. Take a look at heat exchangers meant for commercial cogeneration. They are very, very expensive and still waste a lot of heat. The more heat you recover, the colder the exhaust gets and the more **** condenses out of it on your heat exchanger...and the less your heat exchanger works.

Also, about 1/3 of the gas that goes into an engine goes into making the shaft spin, and not making heat. You cannot recover that heat.

 

[ADSR]

Only cost him twice as much as it would have to buy electricity and burn the oil in an oil furnace.

This was a back up generator for when the power was out.

 

[Hephaestus29]

Hydraulics generate a lot of heat.

My dad met a man one time that heated his chicken houses with hydraulics. Don't ask me how it worked.

 

[jd_1138]

Your best bet is insulation.

 

[bgarrett]

There is a 1980 Mother Earth News article about a guy who used a Pinto engine for heat and to charge batteries to provide lights and to pump water
http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/off-grid-power-zmaz80jazraw.aspx?PageId=1.

Here is one guys response:

Some numbers from the article:

~1 gallon of fuel per run (~$1 per gallon or a bit less)
35 amps @ 14 volts for 1 hour
~2,000 watts for 15 minutes

35 amps * 14 volt * 1 hour = 490 Watt*Hours of "12 volt" power
2,000 watts * 15 min/60minperhour=500 watt*Hours of 240 VAC power

490WH + 500WH = 990 Watt*Hours of electricity per 1 gallon of fuel (Pinto Generator)

Honda eu2000i, running at 1/4 power (1,600 watt * 1/4 = 400 watts) will run for ~15 hours on 1.1 gallons of fuel:

400W * 15H / 1.1 Gallons = 5,454 Watt*Hours per gallon of fuel (Honda Inverter Generator)

Price of electricity:

Pinto: $2 per gallon of fuel / 0.99 kWhrs = $2.02 per kWhr
Honda: $2 per gallon of fuel / 5.454 kWhrs = $0.37 per kWhr

The Honda weighs a bit under 50lbs... The Pinto setup--500 lbs+ ?

 

[bczygan]

Put a burn barrel in the middle of the garage.
Take the tires off, and the seats out of the car. Drain the gas and oil for starter fluid for the bonfire.

 

[Rickcnc]

I know a guy who had his diesel genset outside, and the rad for it on the inside of his house with a couple of pusher fans to blow the heat around. He even made a nice trimmed box for the radiator. Powered the house and heated it too.

Along the same line.. I know someone who uses the generator to power his workshop.. He used the heat from the Rad to heat his radiant floor.

 

[Fifty]

With chimney fireplaces at the 60% efficiency

Yeah...they don't use $4/gallon fuel in those.

I'm not saying use it in your living room but it might be an ok backup in a hunting cabin.

You have a hunting cabin you can park a car inside?

Yeah, you could go to extremes and spend a ton of money on heat exchangers, or just hack up the car and make a dedicated heater out of it. Or you could sell it for scrap and spend $100 on a propane heater and have something that works better, faster, safer, on cheaper fuel...

 

[Idea]

You could build a russian fireplace also know as masonry heater.
90% efficient.


You could build a floor to ceiling metal box with a coil of 4" or greater metal tubing inside. fill the box with sand. a very cheap and easy to move version of the russian fireplace.
i would make a normal one designed to burn wood as it would be much cheaper than gasoline.

 

[pacebria]

wow just wow

 

[LX-Markham]

wow just wow

+1

I've come across a TON of great ideas on this forum.
This is not one of them.

 

[pepi]

Sorry if this is ridiculous...
With the proper exhaust ventilation wouldn't a car make a great garage heater? Since the internal combustion engine is so inefficient at converting energy into motion and a huge percentage is lost to heat, wouldn't it make sense that they would make great garage heaters? Just sayin.....
Milan

Oh hell yeah make sure it has headers, an alcohol motor is best clean burner. On the headers zommies will give you 8 ports of heat, works well in a two car garage. Also have a ceiling fan to bring the heat off the ceiling, or run the motor on its side.

 

[pseudorealityx]

Nobody's talking about the infiltration issue either...

An engine ***** in air, and then spits it out the exhaust. Which means that you're going to get cold air infiltrating into the garage/shop to replace said air.

 

[6768rogues]

Almost a gallon of water is produced from burning a gallon of gas, so the exhaust cooler will have to have a drain.
I would not do it. I would be unsure about all the exhaust getting out and I would not want all those extra idling hours on my engine. At idle, oil pressure is low and it will wear out the engine.

 

[G_P]

Build a barrel stove and get some wood.

Sent via carrier pigeon.